Topic: Polish people and Napoleon

Target group

7th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

XVIII. Napoleonic epoch. Pupil:

4) presents Napoleon's attitude to the Polish cause and the attitude of Poles towards Napoleon.

General aim of education

The student learn about and describe Napoleon's attitude to the Polish cause and the attitude of Poles towards Napoleon

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• about the polish attitude towards Napoleon, and his attitude towards the Polish cause;

• to list the examples of Polish engagement on Napoleon Bonaparte's side.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. The students gets acquainted with the following excerpts from the e‑textbook: Was Polish fate in Polish hands? They write arguments needed for discussion on this subject (they can also use the information from the lessons: „Legiony Polskie i Księstwo Warszawskie”).

Introduction

1. Students do Task 1, then check their findings in pairs. The teacher checks the solution of the exercise and responds to it in the feedback.

2. Then the teacher asks the students: What was the pro‑French orientation? What was the pro‑Russian orientation?.

3. The teacher gives the students the topic of the lesson, explains what it will be and what success criteria should be achieved by the students.

Realization

1. The teacher divides the students into three groups that are preparing for the Oxford discussion. Two groups will debate, the third group will ask questions and evaluate the discussion.

2. The teacher completes the information of the students, obtained by working at home and during the initial phase of the lesson. He talks about social attitudes, gives examples of Polish men and women involvement in the struggle for the Polish cause alongside Napoleon. He uses materials included in the e‑textbook, and his own (a talk method). He asks students to do Task 2 and Exercise 1. The teacher makes sure that the assignments have been correctly completed by the students and then gives them feedback.

3. Then, together with the class, he sets the leading theme of the Oxford discussion (for example, Polish fate was in Polish hands, Kosciuszko was right, rejecting Napoleon's offer, „For my Poles nothing is impossible”, etc.).

4. The Proposition and Opposition Group separates tasks, prepares arguments. Students carry out the debate.

Summary

1. The teacher talks with the students about the legend surrounding the figure of Prince Józef Poniatowski. Then he begins the discussion, asking students whether the Poles, entrusting their case to Napoleon, chose well? Could they achieve more? Finally, the teacher asks students to do Exercise 2. Students listen to the audition.

Homework

1. Homework (homework is not an obligatory part of the scenario). The teacher instructs students to examine the background of the famous Somosierra battle.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Polish people and Napoleon

The military confrontation between France and Austria, Prussia and Russia preceding the establishment of peace terms in Tilst made the Polish cause a bargain card of the European diplomacy. To Napoleon the Duchy of Warsaw was an important part of his Empire's political system. Not all Poles, however, supported cooperation with the French. Kościuszko, among others, was an opponent of linking the Polish cause with Napoleon. He flatly refused to cooperate with the French politicians who addressed him. He believed that Poles should fight for their freedom on their own. The enlargement of the area of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1809 undermined the relations between France and Russia. It was then that the idea of cooperation with the Tsar returned, brought back by Czartoryski at Alexander I's request. Nonetheless, the idea was rejected by the Duchy's authorities. The dilemma returned after Napoleon's defeat in Moscow. Prince Józef Poniatowski, stationed with the Polish troops in Kraków, having thought the situation through ultimately refused to go over to the Russian side. Napoleon's defeat in Leipzig and Poniatowski's death in October 1813 marked the end of the Polish pro‑French orientation.